LE POIS, Antoine.

A very good copy of the first French edition of this beautifully illustrated treatise on Roman numismatics. In the manner of Vico and Erizzo, it was the first French work in its field to rely on the author’s personal collection rather than ancient sources. Antoine Le Pois (1525-1578) was a French physician and passionate numismatist. He studied under Jacques Dubois, the scholar turned anatomist who was the first to teach the anatomy of the human corpse in France. Once Le Pois had returned to Nancy, he began his collection and, as physician, entered the service of Charles III, beloved Duke of Lorraine and a fellow coin enthusiast who had funded his education. His brother, Nicolas Le Pois, also received funding, and was responsible for the work’s posthumous publication and explicit dedication to the duke.  

In the preface, Antoine muses on pursuits which mix utility and delight then frankly analyses the merits of coin collecting; although the greed of collectors and the constituent materials of the objects themselves can render it disadvantageous, it can also offer invaluable insight into the practices of antiquity. This use of coins as historical evidence, already recognised by Petrarch in the 14th century, is now declared by Le Pois to be especially helpful when trying to visualise structures, ornaments, and implements which survive elsewhere only in textual format (so he formulates a hypothesis on how the elusive diadem might have looked) or, indeed, not at all. Organised in thematic groupings, the main text discusses coins whose accumulation paints the story of Rome from its early days of rape and fratricide to emperors broadcasting their piety and pioneering exotic conquests. The celebrated full-page illustration of Priapus, one of four concluding medals, unusually has been neither mutilated nor removed. The importance of this is affirmed by Debure: “Il est difficile d’en trouver des exemplaires bien complet. Il faut, sur-tout, avoir attention à la figure d’un PRIAPE (…), parceque cette figure a été souvent gâtée, ou même supprimée entierement par des personnes à qui elle avoit paru trop indécente” (Debure, Bibliographie instructive, II, 1768, p. 322). 

The monogram of the illustrator, Pierre Woeiriot, appears within the portrait which prefaces the text. Woeiriot also engraved Phalaris’ Bull among other historical scenes of antiquity and illustrated both the Old Testament and a work by Georgette de Montenay, the mother of Good King Henry. Previous owners include Roger Peyrefitte (1907-2000), the sexually liberal but politically conservative French author and diplomat, and the lawyer and collector Silvain S. Brunschwig. 

Charles Lormes (1825-1900) was one of the founding members of the Société des Bibliophiles normands in 1863. His fine library was dispersed in 1901 (this being lot 938).